Good morning, hope your week is going swell. Here’s what’s new in tech land today.
1. UK blocks Microsoft-Activision Blizzard deal
UK regulators overnight torpedoed Microsoft’s planned $US68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, saying the deal wouldn’t help anybody but the companies themselves. The Competition and Markets Authority, which had been reviewing the deal for close to a year now, said the deal would have drastically reduced competition in the cloud gaming sector especially. Chair of the panel investigating the deal, Martin Coleman, said, “Cloud gaming needs a free, competitive market to drive innovation and choice. That is best achieved by allowing the current competitive dynamics in cloud gaming to continue to do their job.” Read more here.
2. ‘Human-made’ shooting star satellite
Back in 2019, we brought you a story about a project called Sky Canvas, the brainchild of Tokyo-based Astro Live Experiences, or ALE. The company wanted to produce a spectacular light show in 2020 above the skies of Hiroshima and the Seto Inland Sea. Now, they’re back, hoping to launch the next Sky Canvas satellite into orbit, what it’s calling a “major step forward in the world’s first human-made shooting star project”. It also said it’s the first step towards ALE realising its ambition to “usher in a new era of sustainable space entertainment over the next decade, boosting the global space business, and advancing essential climate science research and education”.
With this being a big week in the journey of SKY CANVAS, we thought it timely to share a reminder of what you’re getting involved in when you join the VIP club this week. Check it out 🤩
Please share, thanks in advance 🙏 pic.twitter.com/Kqc5mZrajR
— SKY CANVAS (@skycanvasglobal) April 24, 2023
3. Elizabeth Holmes delays start of prison sentence
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has again delayed the start of her 11-year prison sentence for fraud charges, after appealing a previous decision that would have required her to turn herself in on 27 April. Per The Guardian, lawyers for Holmes informed a U.S. district judge that she will not be reporting to prison as scheduled, because she is appealing the ruling that she remain in custody while it is determined whether she should get a new trial.
4. Coles opens automated distribution centre
Coles has opened what it’s calling an Australian Automated Distribution Centre, at Goodman’s Redbank Motorway Estate in Queensland. The centre will service 219 Coles supermarkets in Queensland and Northern New South Wales. Detail on the automation element is scant, but Coles said it has invested more than one billion dollars into this and a second facility, to be opened near Amazon and Australia Post warehouses in Kemps Creek (NSW) in 2024.
5. ispace says its lander unexpectedly accelerated before crashing
Following Tuesday’s failed attempt to land on the surface of the Moon, Japan’s ispace said its lunar lander may have unexpectedly accelerated on its way down before crashing on the lunar surface. The Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander (M1) was scheduled to touchdown on the Moon on April 25 at 12:40 p.m. ET. “Shortly after the scheduled landing time, no data was received indicating a touchdown,” ispace wrote in a statement. “ispace engineers monitored the estimated remaining propellant reached at the lower threshold and shortly afterward the descent speed rapidly increased.” Read more over here.
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See you tomorrow!